Before you Go
by Bite-the-PoisionApples
Summary: What seems like an ordinary family to the Durselys may actually be more then meets the eye. When the new residents of 5 Privet Drive move into the neighbourhood, no one thought much about it, especially not Harry Potter, or at least he didn't until, well.
1. Welcome to the NeighbourHood

Before you Go

Chapter: 1

"Welcome to the Neighbour-Hood"

Summary: What seems like an ordinary family to the Durselys may actually be more then meets the eye. When the new residents of 5 Privet Drive move into the neighbour-hood, no one thought much about it, especially not Harry Potter, or at least he didn't until, well...You'll see.

Author's Note: I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's other counterparts and/or merchandise, _not that I haven't tried._ As a result of my non-ownership of said iteams that should be a realitively good indicaton of my identity, which at this point should register in your mind as not being J.K. Rowling, the true and real owner of said iteams. If for some reason you still insist that I am J.K. Rowling then you are an idiot and therefore should not be allowed to even cross the street without a "special helper" present.

* * *

The sky was warm. Warmer then the warmest smile that had ever been cast upon the sinful from the saint. The clouds were stretched across the atmosphere and if you closed your eyes you could of sworn that you could feel their soft carresses brush against your cheek.

He laid under the shrubs as he did for nearly every minute of every day. He let the emerald green foliage fall onto his face and arms as he extended his hearing to the news report coming from the living room television. As the living room was only a few feet away (due to the fact that he was hiding in the bushes under one of the front windows of the house) he didn't have to extend his hearing that much, but still an effort was made on his part.

Whilst in the midst of listening to daily news broadcast something interrupted his concentration. A noise coming from what seemed like across street was distracting him from the television and so even though he was irritated at the disturbance for pulling his attention away from what may of been the story that focused on the "mysterious" killings of muggles, he opened his eyes and pulled his hand up to seperate the bushes to reveal the commontion from across the street.

A moving truck was parked in the drive-way at 5 Privet Drive. There were people moving about like worker bees pulling things out of the truck and escorting them into the house. He squinted his eyes in an effort to adjust his vision and upon their adjustment he noticed people who stood out. Perhaps it was the fact that the people weren't wearing the bright-blue jump suits that the others who were ushering the big brown boxes into the house were wearing, but that's just a guess on my part.

He noticed a boy. Younger then him, but still old enough to carry one of the larger boxes, he observed. The boy seemed to be trying to pass the box off to a girl who looked about fifth-teen, but yelled at the pitch equivelant of an giantess.

"I'm not taking that box, Dylan! That's _your_ box, not _my_ box. If it was _my_ box then I'd take it up to _my_ room, but as it is not _my_ box and instead _your_ box then I'd hate to deprive you of the privelage of taking _your own _crap up to _your own _room." she bellowed.

They started to bicker again for a moment until a woman with lovely blonde hair, he assumed their mother, came and took the box away from the boy, Dylan, gave the two a dirty look, and walk into the house with the box. Right at the moment when the lady entered the establishment Dylan turned towards the girl and stuck his tongue out at her. She lunged at him and they spent the next four minutes playing cat and mouse on the front lawn. The girl finally stoped chasing Dylan when the he'd started to encircle the house whilst yelling an annoying melody that sounded something like "Sticks and stonse can break my bones, but you won't ever catch me!"

She leaned over a bit and put her hands on her bent knees as she tried to control her breathing. She lifted her head a bit and her eyes came next. Upon the two meeting at a unified time her eyes met the bushes that the boy had been hiding in. Under normal circumstances that would of been fine except for the fact that he had been leaning out of them for the past ten minutes watching the movers, mothers, and antics that had been going on in the neighbouring lawn.

Shocked and embarrassed he quickly jumped back into the shrubery and prayed to Merlock that she didn't come over and mark him as a Pepping Tom. With closed eyes and hardened hand in his pocket he heard with terror the sound of footsteps beckoning closer and dangerously closer still to the bush in which he had now holded himself hostage in.

In a last effort he crawled on his hands and knees to the next bush and then the next bush still. To his luck the second bush in which he'd crouched behind had curved around the house and in a matter of seconds he had managed to find himself on the other end of the house and therefore far, far away from the girl who had been dangerously close to finding him in the bushes.

Oblivious to his plan, however, the girl kept walking towards the bush. She'd reached the first patch of grass on the lawn when she hunched over a bit and tried to make her footsteps as quiet as possible in a 007-type move. She crept closer and closer towards the bush and when she reached it she ran her hand gently over the bristles and leaves of the shrub. Then, in one quick motion she jerked both her hands into the hedge and let a loud "Aha!" release from her lungs.

To her surprise, however, she felt nothing. Nothing but more hedge, that is. She thought she may of missed the boy by a few inches and so she started to swoosh her hands through the entierty of the shrub, but still felt nothing. Her face looked pain, but it wasn't that way for long as before she knew it a voice from the window she was facing came tumbling out and into her ears.

"What are you doing? What the bloody hell are you looking through our bush!" a boy asked hotly.

She looked up in startlement and upon her eyes meeting the boy she noticed his size. He was rather..._round, _to say the least. His head looked something like a beach ball and as he fixed his eyes on the girl in front of him it started to resemble something more like a very large cheery do to it's now crimson shade of coloring.

"Oh. I'm sorry. It's just that I saw someone in these bushes a moment ago and he'd seemingly been watching me on my lawn from over here." she said sincerely.

The boy's head, now considerably more red, began to look a bit panicky.

"Oh. D-don't worry about it. That's just Harry." the boy said.

"Harry? Who's that." she asked.

"W-well. He's sort of my, well...he's t-technically, my umm..._cousin_." he said nervously.

"Cousin? Soooo, your cousin likes to hang out in bushes?" she inquired jokingly.

He let out an uneasy laugh.

"Umm..Well, no. Well, kinda. Well...Um...My name's Dudley." he blurted out as he stuck his hand out of the window.

She looked at him curiously, but in an effort to be cordgial she stuck her hand out aswell and met the boys.

"Uh...Hi Dudfey." she said.

"It's Dud_ley_, actually" he corrected her nervously.

"Oh..Sorry." she apologized.

"It's okay. What's your name?" he asked.

"Dawn." she replied.

"_Dawn_." he emphasised.

"Jacobs. Dawn Jacobs." she answered back.

It was at that moment that another voice eminated from behind the window...

* * *

So what did you think? Was it good? Was it bad? Do I deserve a metal or a quick blow to the head? You decide. Please review and let me know what you think...I promise that it won't go unnoticed. I mention all of my reviewers at the end of my chapters. Thanks.

-Hallowed Halls of Written Woes


	2. Cookies and Scream

Before you Go

Chapter: 2

Cookies and Scream

Summary: What seems like an ordinary family to the Durselys may actually be more then meets the eye. When the new residents of 5 Privet Drive move into the neighbour-hood, no one thought much about it, especially not Harry Potter, or at least he didn't until, well...You'll see.

Author's Note: I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's other counterparts and/or merchandise, _not that I haven't tried._ As a result of my non-ownership of said iteams that should be a realitively good indicaton of my identity, which at this point should register in your mind as not being J.K. Rowling, the true and real owner of said iteams. If for some reason you still insist that I am J.K. Rowling then you are an idiot and therefore should not be allowed to even cross the street without a "special helper" present.

* * *

At this point in the day the sun was setting at an extremely fast rate. The dark shadows were beaming through the open window onto the face of the pudgy boy._ Well_, at least the shadows were only covering the _boy_ until a tall, thin woman came from behind the boy with a curious and crooked look upon her face. She step quickly and placed one of her frail and pasty hands on the mustard yellow curtain that were hanging behind the window whist leaving the other to fall onto the shoulder of Dudley.

She looked at him inquisitively and then her vision focused on the girl, Dawn. She looked her up and down, up and down, up and down. Dawn thought that if the woman had looked her up and down one more time that her eyes would of rolled straight out of her head and on the the flowery carpet that was peaking from behind the two before her.

Finally, after a few moments that felt like a many forever the woman finally opened her mouth.

"Who are you?" the woman asked with raised eye-brows.

"I'm Dawn Jacobs. My family and I just moved in across the street." Dawn replied as she turned her head and pointed towards the moving van in her drive-way that was now pulling away.

Upon inspection of the moving truck and home across the street the woman's eyes passed over a very shiny and very fancy car that was parked in front of the Jacob home. Her eyes lite up as though Christmas had come early and she was the first to open her gifts.

"Oh, well welcome to the neighbour-hood, Dawn." the woman said excitedly as she her eyes sparkled with the crimson greed as they had every time something shiny and new flew into her line of vision.

"Please come in." she spoke.

Anxiously as she hopped from the window to the front door, opened it, and ushered the girl in.

"No, it's okay. I've really got to be getting home now, thank you though." Dawn said politely as she started to walk away.

"Please. Don't be silly, come in." the woman insisted as she grabbed Dawn's arm and nearly dragged her into the house.

Upon entering the home she noticted the distinct smell of musty flowers. She also noticed the extremely round man sipping tea in the kitchen.

"Petunia, who this?" the man asked with a mouth full of cookies and tea.

Dawn squirmed. She was sickened by the crumbs falling from the mans overly large mouth and even more by the generous amount of morsels that had found themselves helplessly trapped within his graying mustache. She leaned back a bit and tried to make a discreet effort to walk away from the portly man and the nauseating speks of food that she feared would at some point come alive and entrapped her in their snare of unpleasentness.

Petunia, however, would have none of this. She once again grabbed the girl's arm and drew her further into the kitchen. Dawn, though hesitant and unwilling, complied to the woman's will and walked deeper into the room.

"This is Dawn Jacobs, dear." Petunia said to man. "Her family just moved in across the street." she said in an uncharacteristically sing-song voice as she floated towards the ice-box to fetch a frozen bag of peas for Dawn's toe that she'd accidentally stubbed in the struggle to get as far away from the kitchen as possible.

"Fine. Why is she in my kitchen?" he asked whilst trying to swallow his food.

"_Dear_." the woman said as she walked over to him and smacked his arm.

"What was that for?" he asked hotly.

Petunia motioned her head towards the living room window which was some-what visible from the kitchen. The man, though irritated by his wife's strange behavior, abliged her will and stretched as far back as his pudgy stomach would allow and caught a small glimpes of the expensive car that had too caught Petunia's attention only moments beforehand.

It was at that moment that he immediately straightened up and adjusted his tie.

"Please" he cleared his throat. "Sit down, _umm_." he searched his memory for the girl's name.

"Dawn. Her name's Dawn dad." Dudley said excitedly as he pulled out a chair for the girl.

She looked at it hesitantly, but sat down.

"Uhhh. Yeah. My name's Dawn." she said.

"I knew it. I could never forget such a pretty name as that." the boy said in a pitiful attempt to flirt.

"Thanks." Dawn muttered.

Petunia, who was now ushering over tea and sugar cookies over to the table, started her master questionaire about the girl and her family.

"So, dear...What brings your family to our _charming_ little neighbour-hood?" she asked as she sat down and started to pour the dark tea.

"Umm..My dad. His new job is around here." Dawn replied.

"Ohhh. Where does he work?" Vernon asked.

"At Morgan and Company. He's the new Head Advertisement Analysist." she answered back while sipping on the bitter tea that the woman had given her seconds before.

"My dad's a business man too." Dudley boasted.

"Yes, well..._I dabble_, I suppose." he said.

Dawn just merely raised her eye-brows in agknowledgement and put her tart tea back down. For the next twenty minutes she was poked and prodded with questions about her family, her school, and her relationship status. That last question was one that seemed to plague the pudgy boy more then anyone else, though Petunia did mention that Dudley somewhere around Dawn's age and that he would be more then willing to show her around town.

Somewhere throughout the "converstation" the topic of the amount of unpacked boxes in the Jacob's home came up. Dudley so _generously_ offered himself up to help unpack the boxes, though Dawn assumed it was his way of getting a cheap shot at her things, but nevertheless she felt it was rude to turn down the offer. After all, her mother hadn't spent the last fifth-teen years lecturing her about politeness to let it go to waste now.

So Dawn finally went home that night and had the privelage of informing her family of the news that their was going to be a strange family from across the street over at their home the next day to help with the unpacking.

* * *

So what did you think? Was it good? Was it bad? Do I deserve a metal or a quick blow to the head? You decide. Please review and let me know what you think...I promise that it won't go unnoticed. I mention all of my reviewers at the end of my chapters. Thanks.

-Hallowed Halls of Written Woes

Next Chapter: Curiosity Killed the Coincidence

**Reviewers:**

RamaFan: _Thanks for your review. I really appreciate it. I also wanted to let you know that there's a very good likelihood that there won't be any real magic until mostlikely the sixth or seventh chapter, but I promise to keep you thouroughly entertained until then._

AlleyCataBra: _Thank you. I'm very glad that you liked my first chapter_.


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